From WikiLeaks

The CRS is a Congressional "think tank" with a staff of around 700. Reports are commissioned by members of Congress on topics relevant to current political events. Despite CRS costs to the tax payer of over $100M a year, its electronic archives are, as a matter of policy, not made available to the public.

Individual members of Congress will release specific CRS reports if they believe it to assist them politically, but CRS archives as a whole are firewalled from public access.

This report was obtained by Wikileaks staff from CRS computers accessible only from Congressional offices.

Civil monetary penalties are one way agencies enforce federal laws and regulations. The minimum and maximum size of civil penalties may be established administratively by federal agencies, or may be established in statute. Over time, inflation can reduce the original deterrent value of civil penalties. To prevent that from happening, in 1996, Congress amended the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 ("Inflation Adjustment Act") and required federal agencies to adjust their covered penalties for inflation by October 1996; and to examine their covered penalties at least once every four years thereafter and make any required penalty adjustments.